More than £42 billion was paid out in bonuses in the last financial year, an increase of 2.7% on the previous 12 months, despite a slump in payments by finance and insurance firms.
New figures from the Office for National Statistics showed that £13.6 billion of the total was paid in the finance industry in 2014/15, down by 9.6% on the year.
Bonuses in finance and insurance firms have fallen "considerably" since the downturn in 2007/8, down by £5 billion, while in the rest of the economy the figure has gone up by a similar amount.
The biggest rise in bonuses came in professional, scientific and technical services.